A dangerous combination of fine particulate matter and toxic surface-level ozone—both forms of air pollution that can be produced or worsened by wildfires—spread across the Western states, causing the highest recorded population exposure.
Unseen dangers accompanied deadly flames in the record-breaking wildfire season that raged across the U.S. West in 2020.
As the fires peaked on Aug. 21, 2020, scientists estimated that a record-breaking 46 million people—half the population of the western U.S.—were exposed to dangerous combinations of ozone and particulate matter pollution. The study, led by doctoral student Dmitri Kalashnikov of Washington State University and published yesterday in the journal Science Advances, examines two decades of data on air pollution, wildfire activity and weather conditions across the western U.S.
They also increase the odds of wildfires, which produce large volumes of particulate matter and also increase the production of ozone. The new study doesn’t delve into why atmospheric ridging is happening more often, but some research suggests climate change is part of the reason. Climate change is also driving temperatures higher across the western U.S., making these events more severe.The result—more combined air pollution events—is a big concern for human health. The study suggests that the population exposed to these events has dramatically increased over the last 20 years.
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